When we learned that a Nissan Silvia was in our area Z Car Garage got excited. This is not the 90’s Silvia (Nissan 240sx here) we know and love, it is the ultra-rare 1965 Silvia CSP311. Only 554 examples were made from ’67 -’67 and never imported to the US.
Fortunately for owner Rick K, he was able to acquire this Silvia from our friends at JDM Legends:
“My son (Matt) and I were searching for a nice 240Z. Throughout our search, Matt kept telling me about the Silvia (CSP311). One became available through JDM Legends. I just wasn’t sure about it until we saw Myron Vernis’ beautiful Silvia featured in a recent JDM exhibit at the Peterson. When we saw the car in person, we were hooked. We purchased the Silvia from JDM-L. It is built on the Nissan/Datsun Roadster chassis and drive train, so it is fun to drive and reliable.”
The Luxurious Datsun 1600 Coupe
The Silvia is special for many reasons. As Rick mentioned above, this car was built on the Datsun Roadster chassis, meaning it is a body-on-frame platform sharing the same R16 drivetrain as the Datsun 1600 (SP311). All were hand built and right hand drive with a gorgeous interior. Fairlady owners will notice familiar gauges and switchgear–all borrowed from the contemporary Datsun Roadster. The body was designed by Kazuo Kimura with influence from Albrecht Goertz (of 240z/2000GT fame):
Although it was a beautiful, robust little coupe it was not a sales success for Nissan. It did however pave the way for the larger S30:
“Nissan shipped one to the fledgling Datsun distributor in the US. They did not think it would sell in the US (re-naming it a Datsun 1600 Coupe) and that was the end of CSP311. It never made it to full production. We believe ours is one of 5 currently in the US. Most are in Japan with a large group in Australia as well. We guesstimate that there may be 150 still in existence world wide.”
The Silvia at Z Car Garage
Rick brought the Silvia in to us for an inspection and to ensure it was road-worthy. We thank owner Eric Bizek of JDM Legends for referring Rick to us!
“Eric at JDM told us about Z Car Garage and Rob. Knowing that one of the best shops in the country was 10 minutes from our house gave us the confidence we needed to buy the car. We knew we had a great shop to work on it in the Bay Area.”
We developed a plan to address some deferred maintenance and sort out the tired suspension. A surprisingly clean underbody (remember this came from Japan!) revealed some corrosion:
To satisfy our curiosity we placed the Silvia on the scales and it checked in at a scant 2210lbs:
We even put it on the dyno to make sure the engine was healthy. Could this be the only Silvia in the US to be dyno tuned? 😀
The Silvia put down a stout 67hp/81tq to the wheels, enjoy the video:
Rick and son Mat have been enjoying the Silvia and sharing it with other enthusiasts.
“Matt and I enjoy driving it often. We also have taken it to Cars and Coffee events in the Bay Area and most notably were welcomed with position A at the Wrigley building in Santa Cruz. The Driving While Awesome Cars and Coffee was one of the best we had been to.”
We also spotted it at the 2019 Saratoga Classic Car Show:
While Rick and Matt were at the shop we let them drive Butters, our 1970 Series 1 shop demo Z. They were hooked:
“Hi Rob, It was great to meet you and your team. Matthew could barely sleep last night after driving Butters. Thanks so much for letting us take it out. Truly amazing. We want a Z just like that.”
Big thanks to Rick for letting us work on the Silvia. We suggested that a car this rare and significant should be as close as possible to a factory correct restoration which we agree with. For now they are just Enjoying The Ride!
